This application relates to power generation apparatus employing a turbine whose rotor vanes rotate in the presence of a moving wind or water stream to produce an output torque for driving an electric generator to provide grid quality power to a utility grid or to a remote off-grid power system.
Conventional wind turbines are usually large structures mounted atop tall towers. During operation, their relatively rapidly rotating rotor vanes produce annoying sounds and are a danger to flying creatures. For these and other reasons, conventional wind turbines are not practical or desirable for use in or near urban or suburban neighborhoods where the power is consumed. Rather, they are placed in large groups or farms at locations where they can be serviced efficiently and where they are exposed to high velocity winds. Resultantly, they require extensive transmission systems to carry the power to where it is needed. On the other hand, water-driven turbines of this general type are not suitable for operating in the shallow waters found in most rivers and tidal flows and they normally must rotate at high speeds to be efficient, endangering various creatures attempting to swim thru them. Moreover, conventional water and wind-driven turbines are, as a general rule, quite complex and costly.
Thus, there is a need for a water or wind-driven power generating system which can economically and safely extract useful power from lower speed wind currents commonly found near major population centers and from relatively low-head, slow speed shallow waters and use that power to generate electricity nearer the point of energy consumption thereby reducing environmental degradation and saving the capital expense and losses of long power transmission systems.